You would think a paper that took a look at tens of thousands of subjects and analyzed the efficacy of prescription vitamin D (D2) and over-the-counter vitamin D (D3) would warrant a news story or two.

To my knowledge, these papers are the first to paint such a clear picture about the efficacy between D3 and D2.”

The Two Types of Vitamin D

Supplemental vitamin D comes in two forms:

1. Ergocalciferol (vitamin D2)

2. Cholecalciferol (vitamin D3)

They have long been regarded as equivalent and interchangeable – especially since a recognized vitamin D expert, Dr. Michael Hollick, recommended it. But that notion was based on studies of rickets prevention in infants conducted several decades ago. Today, we know a lot more about vitamin D, and the featured study offers compelling support for the recommendation to take vitamin D3 if you need to take an oral supplement—which is the same type of D vitamin created in your body when you expose your skin to sunlight.

According to the latest research, D3 is approximately 87 percent more potent in raising and maintaining vitamin D concentrations and produces 2- to 3-fold greater storage of vitamin D than does D2. Regardless of which form you use, your body must convert it into a more active form, and vitamin D3 is converted 500 percent faster than vitamin D2. Vitamin D2 also has a shorter shelf life, and its metabolites bind poorly with proteins, further hampering its effectiveness.

Unfortunately, vitamin D2—which is a synthetic version made by irradiating fungus and plant matter—is the form of vitaminD most often prescribed by doctors in the U.S. Hopefully this will change sooner rather than later.

“While there may be explanations for D3′s superiority other than improved efficacy, for the time being, these papers send doctors a message: use D3, not D2.”

The Incredible Health Benefits of Vitamin D

Optimizing your vitamin D levels may be one of the most important steps you can take in support of your long-term health. There’s overwhelming evidence that vitamin D is a key player in your overall health. This is understandable when you consider that it is not “just” a vitamin; it’s actually a neuroregulatory steroidal hormone that influences nearly 3,000 different genes in your body. Receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones.

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, as well as chronic inflammation. It produces over 200 antimicrobial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic. This is one of the explanations for why it can be so effective against colds and influenza.

That said, keeping a close eye on your vitamin D levels is a wise move for most. The widespread vitamin D deficiency seen today is now thought to fuel an astonishingly diverse array of common chronic diseases, including:

While this article focuses on oral vitamin D supplementation, it’s important to realize that the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels is through appropriate sun or safe tanning bed exposure. There are a number of reasons for this:

When you expose your skin to the sun, your skin also synthesizes high amounts of cholesterol sulfate, which is very important for heart- and cardiovascular health. In fact, according to research by Dr. Stephanie Seneff, high LDL and subsequent heart disease may in fact be a symptom of cholesterol sulfate deficiency. Sulfur deficiency also promotes obesity and related health problems like diabetes

When exposed to sunshine, your skin also synthesizes vitamin D3 sulfate. This form of vitamin D is water soluble, unlike oral vitamin D3 supplements, which is unsulfated. The water-soluble form can travel freely in your bloodstream, whereas the unsulfated form needs LDL (the so-called “bad” cholesterol) as a vehicle of transport. According to Dr. Stephanie Seneff, there’s reason to believe that many of the profound benefits of vitamin D are actually due to the vitamin D sulfate. As a result, she suspects that the oral non-sulfated form of vitamin D might not provide all of the same benefits, because it cannot be converted to vitamin D sulfate

You cannot overdose when getting your vitamin D from sun exposure, as your body has the ability to self-regulate and only make what it needs

Guidelines for Naturally Optimizing Your Vitamin D Levels

To optimize your levels, you need to expose large portions of your skin to the sun, and you need to do it for more than a few minutes. And, contrary to popular belief, the best time to be in the sun for vitamin D production is actually as near to solar noon as possible. During this time you need the shortest exposure time to produce vitamin D because UVB rays are most intense at this time. Plus, when the sun goes down toward the horizon, the UVB is filtered out much more than the dangerous UVA.

Just be cautious about the length of your exposure. You only need enough exposure to have your skin turn the lightest shade of pink. Once you reach this point your body will not make any additional vitamin D due to its self-regulating mechanism. Any additional exposure will only cause harm and damage to your skin.

Unfortunately, studies have shown only about 30 percent of Americans’ circulating vitamin D is the product of sunlight exposure. This is a byproduct of public health agencies’ misguided advice to stay out of the sun to avoid cancer (when in fact vitamin D from sun exposure will actually help prevent it).

The truth is, vitamin D from sun exposure or a safe tanning bed is the BEST way to optimize your vitamin D levels. Safe tanning beds have electronic ballasts rather than magnetic ballasts, which helps you avoid unnecessary exposure to health-harming EMF fields. They also have less of the dangerous UVA than sunlight, while unsafe ones have more UVA than sunlight.

Vitamin D Dosage Recommendations

If appropriate tanning is not feasible, then you’ll be wise to consider an oral vitamin D3 supplement. According to the most recent findings by Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, her research of nearly 10,000 people shows the ideal adult dose appears to be 8,000 IU’s a day to get most into the healthy range. Just remember to get your vitamin D levels tested regularly if you take an oral supplement.

Important: Your Serum Level is what Really Matters

While 8,000 IU’s of vitamin D3 per day is a general recommendation that appears to be beneficial for most people, vitamin D experts from around the world are in agreement that the most important factor is your vitamin D serum level. There’s no specific dosage level at which “magic” happens. So the take-home message is that you need to take whatever dosage required to obtain a therapeutic level of vitamin D in your blood.

At the time (in 2007) the recommended level was 40-60 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml). Since then, the optimal vitamin D level has been raised to 50-70 ng/ml, and when treating cancer or heart disease, as high as 70-100 ng/ml.

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Interesting article. I currently take Vit D-3- 5, 000IU/day due to a medical condition. However, I have recently changed to a vegan diet & have been looking for a D-2 supplement instead. Reading this information now causes me concern. Will definately have to do more research on the D-2 to determine if it really is more detrimental than animal based D-3.

I do miss the sunshine, sunny skies, sunnier personalities and bright, vibrant colours. Unfortunately, our sun is there above the clouds but too shy to show it's face when you live as far north as Canada. Vit D surely makes a huge difference in the health and well-being of people

I think that it is important to mention that if you get sun exposure for Vit D your skin needs time to absorb it which takes a while. Most of us wash off the vitamin D when we take a shower so the longer you let the skin absorb the vitamin D the better.

In general synthetic vitamins are bad for you. Some say that they are identical to natural vitamins in their molecular structure when actually they only have one component of the natural vitamin. Many people who take vitamins get sick after using them for a while and the reason for this is that the synthetic vitamins are chemicals made in a lab and these chemicals are toxic and can build up in your body affecting many of your organs especially your liver.

If you want natural vitamins look for "Whole food vitamins" on the package. These will tend to be more expensive because they are taken from whole foods (fruit, veggies, grains, mushroom, algea, etc). But would you put a price on your health?

I had my Vitamin D levels tested a year ago and
they showed very low levels of the vitamin.
I am fortunate my rheumatologist knew
to specifically prescirbe Vitamin D3 supplements
I livei n the Pacific Northwet, so I get little
sun. A tannning bed is not an option, because
of cost. So supplements are the way to
go for me.

I would suggest reading the Mayo Clinic site on Vitamin D before proceeding on this advice. It is possible to overdose on Vitamin D, which can cause a buildup of calcium in the blood, which can cause serious problem for some people. 1000 i.u is usually the recommended dose, ammounts over that should only be taken under a doctors supervision and over 4000 i.u on a regular basis can cause serious problems. I am suprised that Care 2 does not care enough to vet these articles to make sure that unsafe information is not being distributed on its site.